


Oxygen

by ohnoscarlett



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-29
Updated: 2006-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-01 15:12:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10924440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohnoscarlett/pseuds/ohnoscarlett
Summary: No spoilers that I can see.  Beta bypheebs1andtuesdaysgone.  Thanks, girls!  Posted in my journal, supernaturalfic, and fangirly_fic.





	Oxygen

**Author's Note:**

>   No spoilers that I can see.  Beta by [](http://pheebs1.livejournal.com/profile)[pheebs1](http://pheebs1.livejournal.com/) and [](http://tuesdaysgone.livejournal.com/profile)[tuesdaysgone](http://tuesdaysgone.livejournal.com/).  Thanks, girls!  Posted in my journal, supernaturalfic, and fangirly_fic.

Title:Oxygen

Universe:Supernatural

Genre:gen

Rating:PG

Notes:No spoilers that I can see.Beta by [](http://pheebs1.livejournal.com/profile)[ **pheebs1**](http://pheebs1.livejournal.com/) and [](http://tuesdaysgone.livejournal.com/profile)[**tuesdaysgone**](http://tuesdaysgone.livejournal.com/).Thanks, girls!Posted in my journal, supernaturalfic, and fangirly_fic.

Comments:welcome, encouraged, jonesed-after…

 

 

  


Fish use dissolved oxygen from the water.Amphibians, and even some reptiles, like turtles, Dean thought, can do it too.Absorb it right through their skin.People take it from the air.He wondered if ghosts breathed; if the afterlife—heaven or whatever—was just another plane of existence, and they still breathed and ate, and well, lived.Just somewhere else.Like under water.

 

Dean sat on the edge of the bed in the dark, and stared at the gun in his hands.He wondered if, when he was gone, Sam would move on, go back to school, whatever.He hoped so.Dean liked it when his actions had a purpose.

 

Sam had promised not to leave.Begrudgingly.Because that’s what Dean wanted.But the longer it went on, the more he could see that Sam didn’t want it this way.And Dean couldn’t have that.His Sam had to be happy, and happy he would be.

 

Dean was ever resourceful.Sam’s satchel, where he kept the laptop, was stuffed with papers.Information from Stanford about how to resume matriculation.Addresses and phone numbers of all their contacts, annotated with specialties and helpful hints.The title and registration of the Impala.

 

Sam was in the hospital, and it was his fault.Dean couldn’t send him away because of the promise.They would never leave each other.Sam wouldn’t break it, and Dean couldn’t.Dean couldn’t leave, but he could be _gone_.He looked at the gun again.

 

Dean wasn’t afraid of death.He’d been close enough to pretty much know what to expect.It was _after_ that worried him.Would he go to heaven, and just bounce around with all the angels and be oblivious?Or would he go to hell, more likely, given the circumstances, and just be—well, in hell.Or would he take door number three, and remain, the ghostly presence in Sam’s closet?

 

Sam would understand.He wouldn’t like it, but he would understand.The gun lay heavy in Dean’s hands.It gleamed silvery in the darkness, and beckoned. _Solutions lie within_ , it said.Dean hung his head, the weight of it pulling the muscles of his neck.He shifted the gun into his right hand.Turned it over.

 

The door opened.Dean lifted his head.Sam was in the entrance.Neither of them ever could stay in a hospital as long as they were supposed to.Sam just stood there, looking at Dean in the dim light, not saying a word.

 

Dean put the gun down on the bed.He really couldn’t leave Sam.Not by walking away, and not by—anything.He needed to be with his brother, whichever plane of existence he was in.Dean took a deep breath.Sam was his oxygen.Sam saw.And he smiled.


End file.
